“A new 3G (European) version of the iPhone will be launched Monday in the UK by Apple – in a join promotion with Vodafone, T-Mobile of Germany, and Carphone Warehouse. It should answer the disappointment with the US version of the iPhone which has been widely slammed for its poor performance as a phone,” Guy J. Kewney blogs for newswireless.net.

MacDailyNews Take: Kewney’s description, “widely slammed,” seems a bit over the top. The network speed has been mentioned as a disappointment (especially when compared to iPhone’s on-board Wi-Fi performance, which blows away 3G, of course) in some initial hands-on reviews, of which there have been just four so far. The jury is still out on how it will perform after AT&T finishes prepping EDGE for the expected influx of millions of iPhones.

Kewney continues, “Hints of the European launch emerged yesterday when Bill Condie of the London Evening Standard tipped Vodafone to be the official carrier, which will be confirmed Monday. But Voda is just part of the picture, with Apple going for a three-pronged European strategy with carriers – again, responding to disappointment in America with the exclusive deal with AT&T/Cingular.”

“Shipment date is still unknown, but ‘on course’ for the year-end date predicted last October by Apple CEO Steve Jobs” Kewney reports.

Pure, unadulterated FUD. What better way try to suck some air out of the iPhone’s initial sales than to serve up an unconfirmed report that a “better” iPhone will be announced just after launch weekend, one that offers a feature that the first iPhone has been ‘widely slammed’ for not including.

3G coverage in Europe is like EDGE coverage in the States: it’s almost everywhere.

The problem with 3G in Europe is not the coverage, rather the sh*tty plans. Here’s to hoping that Apple is able to convince Vodafone or whichever carrier picks up the iPhone to have plans that are as simple as the AT&T iPhone plans.